This invention relates to a foam and concrete float apparatus that is particularly adapted for use in a marina as a floating dock or mooring for pleasure boats and other water craft. The foam and concrete float apparatus is constructed with a plurality of float modules that are interconnected to provide for walkways, finger slips and other structural arrangements that form a marina dock layout or other floating platform. The float module combines a closed-cell foam pontoon that is securely bonded to a flat concrete deck. The foam and concrete float apparatus is combined with other modules, generally using elongated wooden stringers that interconnect adjacent modules.
Prior art float modules have been devised for marina docks using a foam pontoon enclosed in a concrete shell with a contiguous concrete deck wherein the foam is completely encapsulated in concrete. The cost and complexity of fabricating such a float can be avoided by the preferred design of the present invention. In addition to simplicity of fabrication, the foam and concrete float apparatus of this invention is lighter in weight and more easily modified and configured then pre-existing structures.
Prior art concrete floats are constructed by a complicated process involving installing a foam blank in an expensive, deep mold into which a concrete slurry is poured. In the subject invention the deck can be fabricated using an inexpensive, shallow rectangular form. The foam blank is thereafter bonded to the exposed concrete surface shortly after curing. Finally, an inexpensive coating is sprayed or troweled onto the exposed foam to protect the foam from marine organisms where necessary. The modules are assembled as desired.